Exclusive: Hospitality Giant OYO Rejigs Top Management Ahead Of IPO

Hospitality unicorn OYO is undertaking a major reshuffle of its top management team, assigning additional roles to founder Ritesh Agarwal’s core team ahead of its proposed initial public offering (IPO), sources told Inc42.

As part of the rejig, Abhinav Sinha, who is currently the global COO of OYO, will take up the integrated role of Chief Product and Technology Officer. The development comes in the backdrop of OYO merging its product and engineering functions, the sources said.

Sinha, who has been with the SoftBank-backed startup since 2014, will take over the role from current CTO Ankit Mathuria. Mathuria, who was appointed in 2021, will be moving out of the firm in June 2023, they added.

Besides, the hospitality giant has also made major changes in its top deck and added additional roles. These include:

• Chief Business Development Officer Anuj Tejpal will become the Global Chief Merchant Officer and also take up additional charge of India’s merchant teams. 
• CFO Abhishek Gupta will now work closely with the company’s large institutional investors.
• Shreerang Godbole, who was recently elevated to the role of Chief Service Officer, has been given additional charge of the data science division. He is also heading the Super OYO initiative.
• OYO International CEO Gautam Swaroop will take over allied businesses at OYO, including Weddingz. 
• Mandar Vaidya, CEO of OYO Europe, will take additional charge of the company’s premium hotel asset portfolio, which includes ‘5 by OYO’ in  Jaipur, ‘4 by OYO’ in Zirakpur, ‘3 by OYO’ in Ahmedabad and Vadodara.
• Chief Strategy Officer Maninder Gulati will shift to a mentorship role and continue to work closely with the OYO leadership team for key business endeavours.

The reshuffle comes ahead of OYO refiling draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for its IPO.

Late last year, the market regulator asked OYO to refile its DRHP by updating all relevant sections such as risk factors, KPIs, and outstanding litigations after the company submitted its financial results for the first half of FY23 by filing an addendum.

A detailed questionnaire sent to OYO on the rejig remained unanswered till the time of publishing this story. The article would be updated on receiving a response from the company.

OYO first filed the DRHP with SEBI in September 2021 for an INR 8,430 Cr IPO.

OYO reported a loss of INR 333 Cr during Q2 FY23, down nearly 20% from INR 414 Cr in Q1 FY23. Its loss declined 22.2% in the first half of FY23 to INR 747.1 Cr from INR 959.8 Cr in the corresponding period of FY22.

In a town hall meeting recently, OYO told its employees that it is likely to be EBITDA positive for the first time in the ongoing financial year FY23. In a presentation, the IPO-bound startup said that its adjusted EBITDA is expected to rise about 3X during the second half of FY23 to INR 185 Cr compared to the first half of the fiscal.